Tu Sanqi was startled by those words and almost instinctively took several steps back.
The zombie in front of her didn’t stop her. He simply stood there quietly watching her, then withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.
Tu Sanqi: “……”
She stared at him in astonishment as he walked farther away, until the mutated fish’s voice sounded again behind her.
“We can’t afford to mess with high-level zombies like that!”At some point it had swum back. Now it clung to the riverbank and told Tu Sanqi, “I just discovered some other ability users farther downstream, and there are a few old train carriages nearby too.”
Tu Sanqi came back to her senses and took out a mirror to check her face.
Just as she expected—her red eyes had appeared again earlier. But now the scarlet color at the bottom of her pupils was gradually fading.
She rubbed her eyes and looked deeply in the direction the high-level zombie had left. Then she thanked the mutated fish and turned back toward Zhao Abao.
Zhao Abao was awakened by the alarm from his communicator.
When he looked back and saw that Tu Sanqi wasn’t in the car, he immediately grabbed the weapon from the back seat and got out—only to run straight into Tu Sanqi, who was walking back.
Tu Sanqi looked normal and even a bit surprised.
“You’re awake?”
“Be careful.” Zhao Abao motioned for her to stand behind him, his expression serious. “There are zombies nearby.”
Tu Sanqi glanced at the communicator on his wrist.
She thought for a moment. Earlier in the desert she had seen the high-level zombie with red eyes, but Zhao Abao’s alarm device hadn’t reacted at all.
Now it was buzzing constantly…
She turned to glance at the river behind her and suddenly understood.
“No.” She pulled him back toward the car. “There are mutated creatures in that river.”
Zhao Abao instinctively looked toward the riverbank. Though he couldn’t see clearly, dawn was beginning to break and he could vaguely see movement on the surface of the water.
Not long after, the alarm stopped as well.
Zhao Abao let out a sigh of relief and stopped doubting.
“I’ll drive. Contact the captain and the others,” Tu Sanqi said. She fixed the helmet with the antenna onto the back of the car and sat in the driver’s seat. “We’ll reach them in ten minutes. Tell them to get ready.”
Zhao Abao sat in the passenger seat, doing as she said while feeling somewhat ashamed.
“Sorry. I said I’d take the second half of the night watch.”
“It’s fine,” Tu Sanqi said, unconcerned. Then she reminded him, “The magnetic field here is a bit unusual. It doesn’t just block signals—it probably affects ability users too.”
Zhao Abao was startled and felt fortunate.
“Good thing you were here.”
He would have to get himself checked after returning.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Han Fei had been on patrol during the second half of the night.
When he received Zhao Abao’s message, he was surprised but immediately woke Leng Xiangge and the others.
The four quickly prepared themselves.
Ten minutes later, the familiar vehicle finally appeared in their line of sight.
Yan Shuang and Miao Yu first carried the two rescued civilians into the car. Zhao Abao climbed into the back seat and began treating the injured.
Tu Sanqi had intended to move to the back seat too, but Leng Xiangge naturally sat in the passenger seat.
So Tu Sanqi ended up driving the car back.
Aside from some minor injuries from the sandstorm, Leng Xiangge and the others were fine.
The two civilians, however, remained unconscious. Zhao Abao initially determined they weren’t infected and performed some emergency treatment.
Tu Sanqi withdrew her gaze and focused on driving.
Leng Xiangge beside her began describing what had happened to their group and asked about how she and Zhao Abao had lost contact.
“The sandstorm was too strong,” Tu Sanqi replied. “Even though I added extra weight to the tires, about half an hour after you were blown away we couldn’t hold on anymore. We landed north of your location, but the magnetic field there was strange and we lost signal.”
Leng Xiangge listened while pulling up a map. Based on Tu Sanqi’s description, she circled a location.
“So that’s where you landed.”
She pointed it out. Tu Sanqi glanced over quickly and memorized the position.
“What place is that?” Tu Sanqi asked curiously.
“A classified zone,” Leng Xiangge said. “It seems people from the research institute are stationed there… but I’m not very clear on the details.”
Tu Sanqi understood and didn’t ask further.
When they drove back to the Special Zone, Tu Sanqi saw Brother Yun again—the man responsible for managing the zone’s entry and exit.
He recognized her and nodded slightly.
Tu Sanqi politely returned the greeting and watched as Han Fei and Yan Shuang carried the two unconscious civilians out of the car for inspection.
A moment later, the scanner in Yun’s hand emitted a green light…
But the two civilians were still detained.
Tu Sanqi was a bit surprised. Leaning slightly toward the window, she vaguely heard something about “new arrangements from above.”
Han Fei and Yan Shuang cooperated without objection. They got back into the car, and Tu Sanqi started the engine again.
Before she could ask anything, Zhao Abao in the back seat spoke curiously.
“What new arrangement? Are rescued people no longer brought into the Special Zone?”
Yan Shuang nodded.
“They said a new base has been planned. From now on, rescued survivors will be sent there.”
The Engineering Department training camp and the combat training camp were in completely different directions.
However, Zhao Abao needed to go to the hospital for a checkup, and Tu Sanqi also had to see Doctor Cheng again, so the two went together.
While walking, Zhao Abao received another message from Leng Xiangge asking whether they had encountered the high-level zombie afterward.
Before they were swept away by the sandstorm, he had sent a warning message about it in the squad channel.
So he turned to Tu Sanqi.
“Did you see the high-level zombie again last night?”
Tu Sanqi calmly shook her head.
Zhao Abao didn’t doubt her.
After all, Tu Sanqi was just an engineering trainee who hadn’t even awakened an ability yet—how could she possibly deal with a high-level zombie if she really encountered one?
He lowered his head to reply to Leng Xiangge.
Meanwhile, Tu Sanqi took out the last syringe of medicine from her pocket.
She had brought two syringes with her when she went on the mission yesterday.
But now, only one remained.
Thinking back to the red-eyed high-level zombie, Tu Sanqi didn’t know why, but she had a strong intuition—
The missing syringe had been stolen by that high-level zombie.
At the thought of this, she fell silent.
When they arrived on the fifth floor, Doctor Cheng Shi didn’t have her lie down on the usual 360-degree rotating scanner this time.
“I heard you’ve already been transferred to the Engineering Department’s training camp,” Cheng Shi said casually as he led her inside and drew a small tube of blood from her arm. “Looks like we’ll be calling you Engineer Tu in the future!”
Tu Sanqi scratched her head awkwardly. She didn’t dare mention that she was actually aiming to become a technician.
“Since you’ve given up the path of becoming an ability user, we won’t do that test anymore,” Cheng Shi said. “I’ll just check your blood to see how your body is doing and send the report to you later.”
Tu Sanqi was more than happy with that!
Every time they did that test, Cheng Shi would ask whether she was even human… and it made her incredibly nervous!
“Okay!” Tu Sanqi agreed. Seeing that Cheng Shi once again prescribed her a box of medicine, she hesitated and quietly asked,
“Doctor Cheng… is there anything special about this medicine?”
“It’s just a specially formulated nutritional supplement,” Cheng Shi replied casually, glancing at her. “You’ve been drinking it for months. Only now you think to ask?”
“Well… a friend of mine accidentally drank some,” Tu Sanqi said stiffly. “I was worried he might have taken the wrong medicine.”
Cheng Shi waved his hand dismissively.
“It’s fine. This medicine doesn’t work on anyone else.”